Attributes

This is the canonical dictionary of every attribute on a source object. Attributes shared with other entities (id, ids, display_name, works_count, cited_by_count, summary_stats, counts_by_year, created_date, updated_date) are documented once on Common attributes; source-specific notes on them are below. The filter/sort/group_by operations each field supports come from the properties catalog.

Attributes

id

String. The OpenAlex ID for this source, e.g. https://openalex.org/S137773608. See Common attributes.

ids

Object. All known external identifiers for this source, as URIs where possible. Source-specific keys: openalex, issn_l, issn (a list), mag (Microsoft Academic Graph integer ID), wikidata, fatcat. Filter/sort on ids.openalex and ids.mag.

display_name

String. The name of the source (a journal or repository title). Every entity carries a display_name. Filterable and searchable via the search parameter.

issn_l

String. The linking ISSN — the canonical ISSN that groups a source’s print and electronic ISSNs into one. This is OpenAlex’s primary way of merging ISSN variants into a single source. Filterable, sortable, and groupable.

issn

List. All ISSNs known for this source (print and electronic), including the issn_l. Null for sources without an ISSN (many repositories). Filterable, sortable, groupable; use has_issn to filter on presence.

host_organization

String. The OpenAlex ID of the publisher (or, for a repository, the institution) that hosts this source. Filter/sort/group_by; also available as host_organization.id.

host_organization_name

String. The display name of the host_organization, denormalized onto the source for convenience.

host_organization_lineage

List. OpenAlex IDs tracing the host_organization up its publisher hierarchy (e.g. an imprint’s parent, and its parent’s parent). Filter/sort/group_by on the whole lineage to catch every source under a top-level publisher.

type

String. The source’s type — one of journal, ebook platform, conference, repository, book series, other, or metadata. Every source has exactly one; see Source types for the vocabulary and About for counts. Filter/sort/group_by.

is_oa

Boolean. True if the source is a fully open-access venue — every work it publishes is OA. Drives the gold-vs-hybrid/bronze status of the works inside it (see About). About 65,000 sources are is_oa=true. Filter/sort/group_by.

is_in_doaj

Boolean. True if the source is indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, which vets the legitimacy of fully-OA journals (about 23,000 sources). DOAJ membership implies is_oa=true. Filter/sort/group_by; is_in_doaj_since_year records when membership began.

is_in_doaj_since_year

Integer. The year the source entered DOAJ; null if it isn’t in DOAJ. Filter/sort.

is_core

Boolean. True if the source is on the CWTS Core sources list — the venues behind the Leiden Ranking (about 36,000 sources). Not the same as the Web of Science Core Collection; see About. Filter/sort/group_by.

is_high_oa_rate

Boolean. True if a high share of the source’s works are open access. A softer signal than is_oa (fully-OA). Filter/sort/group_by; is_high_oa_rate_since_year records when this became true.

is_high_oa_rate_since_year

Integer. The year the source became is_high_oa_rate; null otherwise. Filter/sort.

is_in_scielo

Boolean. True if the source is part of the SciELO network of open-access journals (predominantly Latin American). Present on the object; not currently exposed as a filter.

is_ojs

Boolean. True if the source runs on Open Journal Systems, the widely used open-source journal-publishing platform. Filter/sort/group_by.

is_preprint_repository

Boolean. True if the source is a preprint repository (e.g. arXiv, bioRxiv). Filter/sort/group_by.

oa_flip_year

Integer. If the journal flipped from toll-access to open access, the year it did so; null otherwise. Works published before the flip are hybrid/bronze, after it gold — see About. Filter/sort.

apc_prices

List. The source’s list-price APC as advertised, one entry per currency (price, currency). The listed price, not what any author paid. Filter/sort/group_by on apc_prices.currency and apc_prices.price. See About.

apc_usd

Integer. The apc_prices list price converted to USD — a single comparable number across sources. Filter/sort/group_by.

apc_usd_by_year

List. The USD list price by year (year, price), where OpenAlex has year-specific data. Present on the object; the single-value apc_usd is the filterable field.

oa_works_count

Integer. How many of the source’s works_count works are open access. Also appears per-year inside counts_by_year.

first_publication_year

Integer. The earliest publication year of any work in this source. Filter/sort.

last_publication_year

Integer. The most recent publication year of any work in this source (ongoing journals show the current year). Filter/sort.

country_code

String. The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code of the source’s home country (typically its publisher’s). Filter/sort/group_by; continent and is_global_south are derived from it.

homepage_url

String. The source’s homepage on the web. Present on the object; not a filter.

societies

List. Learned or scholarly societies associated with the source (each with an organization name and URL), e.g. a journal published on behalf of a society. Often empty.

alternate_titles

List. Other names the source is known by (alternate or former titles). Available as a column.

abbreviated_title

String. The source’s standard abbreviated title (e.g. the ISO 4 abbreviation), when known. Available as a column.

topics

List. The topics most associated with the works published in this source, ranked, each with a count and its subfield/field/domain. See Aboutness. Filter on topics.id.

topic_share

List. Like topics, but scored by the source’s share of each topic relative to all sources — surfacing the topics this source is disproportionately central to, not just its most frequent. Filter/sort/group_by on topic_share.id.

counts_by_year

List. Per-year rollup of the source’s works_count, oa_works_count, and cited_by_count for roughly the last ten years. See Common attributes, including why its sort direction isn’t consistent across entity types.

summary_stats

Object. Precomputed bibliometric indicators for the source: 2yr_mean_citedness (a journal impact factor-style measure), h_index, and i10_index. Filter/sort/group_by on each. See Common attributes.

works_count

Integer. The number of works published in this source. See Common attributes. Filter/sort/group_by.

cited_by_count

Integer. Total citations received across all of the source’s works. See Common attributes. Filter/sort/group_by.

works_api_url

String. A ready-made Works API URL that returns every work in this source — i.e. api.openalex.org/works?filter=primary_location.source.id:S…. A convenience link, not a filterable field.

created_date

String. The date the source was added to OpenAlex (YYYY-MM-DD). See Common attributes.

updated_date

String. The ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of the last change to the source object. See Common attributes.